I'll Be There
by LordOfTheBooks
Summary: Sometimes, people can be total idiots. It takes a real friend to get your head out of your butt to do what you need to do. Spitfire and Dick/Babs. Genderswap.


**So, here's how this thing works; Artemis, Wally, Barbara (Batgirl) and Dick Grayson are all gender swapped. Here are their names:**

**Artemis Crock: Apollo Crock**

**Wally West: Wendy West**

**Barbara Gordon: Brendon Gordon**

**Richard "Dick" John Grayson: Rowan "Row" Jane Grayson**

**As you can see, Dick or Rowan will be referred to as Row most of the time in the story. Please enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own YJ**

"So, mind telling me what's the deal with you and Row?"

Brendon spared Apollo a glance, and then turned away once again nursing his coffee drink. The two boys were sitting outside Starbucks at 8 o'clock in the morning doing nothing other than catching up.

Brendan eventually responded saying, "I honestly don't know what you mean. There's nothing going on between me and Row."

Apollo rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and Conner and M'gann don't have sexual tension," he said sarcastically. "Come on, Bren. Truthfully, how do you really feel about her?"

"Will you cut it out? Why are you chastising me about my relationships? What about you and Wendy? Did you propose yet?"

Apollo glared at the admittedly good-looking red head across from him and said, "Now you're just avoiding the question. But to answer yours, no I haven't proposed, but I was planning to tomorrow night."

"So, are you going to take her out for a romantic evening or what?" Brendon was clearly avoiding talking about himself and a certain acrobat at all costs.

"I will not answer any questions or talk to you until you tell me how you feel about Rowan Jane Grayson. How you _really, truly _feel about her. None of the crap that she's one of your best friends on the entire planet."

So the two boys sat there in silence while Apollo waited for an answer. And he waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually Apollo sighed and said, "You're really not going to talk to me, are you?" When he got no answer, he stood up to leave.

While he was walking away Brendon called after him, "Why do you care?"

The archer allowed himself a small smile before he called back to his younger friend, "Have you talked to her lately? Dude, she's full-blown depressed and I have a feeling that you're the reason why she's depressed."

Brendon furrowed his eyebrows in concern. "How do you know that?" He said it with extremely slight traces of worry and panic.

Apollo raised an eyebrow and said, "You forget that my girlfriend Wendy happens to be Row's best friend. But, since there's nothing going on between the two of you, I guess I'll just leave."

Apollo walked a few more steps before he heard pounding one's running towards him and Brendon's voice shouting, "What!" Apollo stopped walking allowing Brendon to say, "Is-I haven't seen her in a few months. What's wrong with her?"

"From what Wendy's told me, she's just plain depressed. She never goes out with friends anymore, and when she's not locked away in her little apartment, she's completely obsessed with missions 24/7. Wendy also told me that she'll hardly talk to her, let alone anyone else."

Brendon bit his lip, worry evident on his face. "She'll be fine, right? I mean, she's _Row. _She always is, right?"

Apollo shook his head and said, "Brendon, do you want to sit down and talk about it?"

Brendon's eyes flickered downward as they headed back to the coffee shop. The two boys ordered even more coffee once more and sat down at the same seat they were at only moments ago. Apollo set down his cup and examined his comrade thoroughly. Apparently Row wasn't the only one faring too well, because Apollo began noticing the tired and over-worked expression on his friend along with the heavy bags under his eyes. Yes, Brendon was not too well off himself.

Before Apollo could question the ginger, Brendon began talking. "I had this huge crush on her since the moment I saw her. She was, by far, the most beautiful girl my nine-year-old eyes had ever seen. Not only that, but she had this sparkling way of speaking that could get me to do absolutely anything she wanted. She had me wrapped around her little finger from moment one. The years went on, and she never seemed to return my feelings always calling me her best friend. By the time we were sophomores, I had guys asking me for her number. Somewhere along the lines, I got a girlfriend or two, and thought I had moved on and Row was truly only my friend."

"But you hadn't, and she wasn't."

Brendon nodded in agreement. "But I hadn't, and she wasn't. It was our senior year in high school when we were on a mission for stopping a drug exchange. The man behind it all still sickens me today, but was brilliant, nonetheless. Because he was more intelligent than most gang masters, we underestimated him and he ended up getting the better of Row. As you know Row's a very pretty girl, and he, well, took advantage of her. Something in me just snapped, and I've never been angrier in my life. I pulled him off her throwing him to the ground, and screamed horrible threats of what I would do to him if I'd ever caught him doing that to her again. By the end of the night I put that man into the emergency room. Row saw how upset I was, and she tried to calm me down, telling me that men doing that to her on missions happen more often than not."

Apollo nearly spit out his coffee and said, "And she thought that would make it _better?!"_

Brendon laughed at Apollo appalled expression. "I know! As you could've guessed, that made even angrier. I started yelling at Row, saying that she should be more careful. Row yelled right back at me, saying that she can take care of herself and nothing serious has ever happened. And between all the yelling, I might have mentioned that I care for her as more than a friend."

Apollo, who was totally engrossed in the story started at Brendon with wide eyes. "Come on, don't leave me hanging," he said.

"Right after my feelings was out in the open, she kissed me. Totally took me by surprise, but it was everything I ever wanted it to be. She told me that she had developed feelings for me too, but was too afraid of ruining our friendship if anything happened. In the end we both agreed that we treasure each other too much to put our relationship on the line by engaging each other in a romantic way. As a result, we stayed friends for months. Then came another one of Bruce's famous charity balls. We danced with each other that night, and I think you can guess what happened after that." Apollo nodded his understanding, so Brendon continued. "After that, everything was different. I was determined to go back to the way things were, and she was determined not to. She wanted to start a relationship, and I wanted to stay best friends. So time passed and we would occasionally spend late nights together at her place or mine, but we both knew we were far pass the friend's zone. When she moved to Bludhaven, I started seeing her less and less and our, let's just say 'friends with benefits' encounters became less and less frequent. Eventually we were at a point where we thought we could just go back to being friends again."

"Okay, let me get this straight," said Apollo, "Row was practically on her knees, begging you to become her boyfriend, and you _declined? _I thought she was your dream girl or something."

"I didn't expect you to understand; you've never been in my position. Row is the most precious thing in my life; say we did hook up, but something went wrong, and we broke up. Things would just be awkward between us and we couldn't really be friends again. I don't think I could've handled that. She's my best friend. Being her friend is better than being her nothing."

"Okay, okay, now I understand. But, then what happened to you guys?"

Brendon leaned back in his chair and thought over his words carefully. "I guess the story sort of ends there."

Apollo gave the bat a disbelieving look. "Uh, yeah, if the story ended there, explain to me why she's so messed up."

Brendon gave Apollo a sly grin and said, "Wendy set you up to this, didn't she?"

"Hey; she just wants to know what you did to sent Row into an emotional coma, but can you blame her?"

"Alright, alight. So, like I said; we saw less of each other, but sort of began to go back to being friends. However, in about the past two years we started getting together more and more and we went on actual dates where I could actually take her home afterward, and hence the friends with benefits begins again. After a while of that, I drew the line. I was just so fed up with her. She thinks that as long as we're not an item, she can still date other guys. And on top of that, when I confronted her about it, all she said was that she has to keep up and image. Anyway, I told her that she wasn't ready for us. I said that until she grows up and learns how to maintain a proper relationship, we can never be together. That was about a year ago. Since then I've slept with her about twice, but I left before she woke up both times. The last time I saw her, she…she told me she was in love with me and that she thinks she's ready to commit herself. Like the douche I am all I said was that I need to think about it and I left her."

Apollo sat there in silence, staring at the miserable face of his friend. After a good long while he said, "Brendon, there's one question I asked you since we came here that you have failed to answer. I think you answer on it will help you more than you know; how do you really feel about Row."

Without hesitation Brendon said, "I am hopelessly in love with that girl. But…"

"But what?"

Brendon met the archer's steely blue eyes with his miserable plush green eyes. Unlike Wendy's bright grass green ones, Brendon's eyes were a much lighter color and deeper than Wendy's. "She sleeps with guys like its nothing. For heaven's sake, she gave away her virginity without a second thought. I don't want to be another one of her boy toys. I don't want to be another fool who thinks their special until after she's had her fun with then and stomps of their heart with her high heel little boots."

Apollo glared at him, and dumped the rest of his coffee drink on Brendon.

Brendon sputtered with wide eyes and said, "What the heck was that for?!"

"For practically calling Row a slut!" said Apollo. "Look, I may not have the same history with Row as you do, and I may not like her the way you do, but she is one of my closest friends on the face of this earth. She was the first one who made me believe it didn't matter _where_ I came from, or who my family is, because all that mattered was who I was. I may not know her as well as you do, but I obviously know her better that you think. If I know anything about Row, is that she's not a player or a slut. She honestly likes all the guys she dates, but things just don't work out. I also know that you're different from all those guys. You're the only one of those guys that she's ever been in love with. So stop being a coward and man up! Go to her and tell her how you feel!"

Brendon gave the blonde man a murderous glare, stood up, and walked out of Apollo's sight. Apollo didn't feel an ounce of guilt for what he did; Brendon deserved it and hopefully the archer's little pep talk made him get to his senses to do what he needed to do.

**.**

**.**

**.**

**.**

"How'd it go?"

Apollo turned his head and spotter his girlfriend sitting on the couch in their apartment. He shrugged and said, "Hopefully well. I'm not sure if he was just pissed at me, or he's actually at Row's begging on his knees."

Wendy shook her head and laughed. "What makes you say that?"

Apollo sighed, plopping himself down on the sofa beside the speedster. "He practically called Row a slut, so-"

"That jerk!" interrupted Wendy. "Like he has the right!"

Apollo smirked to himself, knowing that this would get Wendy angry. "Anyway, I got a little ticked at the guy, dumped my coffee on him, and told him to put his big-boy pants on."

"Which means…?"

"I told him to go to Row's and tell her how he feels."

"Which is…?"

Apollo face-palmed and said, "He said so himself! He loves her. A _lot." _

Wendy smiled with satisfaction and moved closer to her boyfriend. "Hopefully he listened to you. So, did he know what was wrong with Row?"

"Long story short, she told him she was in love with him, begged him to be with her, and he just said he had to think about it and left her. Hasn't seen her in a month. Though, he wasn't looking too good himself."

Wendy pulled Apollo and gave him a good long kiss on the lips. When she pulled away she said, "I just hope those two work it out."

**;)**

**;D**

**:P**

**:O**

**O.o**

**o.O**

**;/**

The minute Brendon left the coffee shop he was in his car driving to Bludhaven. After three hours on the road, he got to Bludhaven only for it to be absolutely pouring. On top of that, he couldn't park in the apartment parking lot because that was for registered residents only. He ended up having to park three blocks away, running towards Row's apartment in the pouring rain, and losing one of his shoes in a puddle. By the time he got to outside the apartment under the window, he was shivering and soaking. _At least it washes the coffee off of me, _he thought bitterly.

Desperate, the boy picked up a rock nearby and tossed it at the window. After a few seconds, the window opened to reveal the face of Rowan Grayson. She just stared at the red-head with no expression on her face. Brendon took notice of her hair that was messier than usual, her blood-shot eyes, purple bags, and downright sleep-lacking face. It made him feel absolutely awful to know he was the cause of that. However, her face only mirrored the misery of his.

After what seemed like years she said, "What do you want?"

Jaw clattering, Brendon responded, "You look horrible."

Row leaned on her hands and shot him one of her fiercest glares. "Gee, I wonder why?" she said sarcastically. "I asked you a question, and I _don't _like being ignored. _What do you want?"_

Slightly terrified and shivering beyond belief, Brendon mustered up all the courage his 22-year-old mind had and said, "I came here to tell you that, Rowan Jane Grayson, I'm sorry. You don't know how much I hate myself right now. That, and…and, I am 120% hopelessly and completely in love with you. I think I have been for a while. The reason I rejected you at first was not because I wasn't really sure how I felt, but because I was _scared. _I was scared that you would eventually break up with me, and then we wouldn't really be even friends anymore. I was scared that I would turn into just another boyfriend. Well, I'm not afraid anymore and I'm out here shivering my butt off trying to tell you that I want to be your boyfriend. I want to be able to go on dates and go home with you and not worry about what will happen afterwards. So please could you just accept me and let me in? Seriously, I think I'm going to catch pneumonia."

When Row shut the window, Brendon felt his heart collapsing. He knew he had blown it, and there was nothing he could do anymore. Tears began to well-up in his eyes as he turned about and started to trudge back to his car with a destroyed heart. Before he could take a second step, he heard multiple bolts on a door being hastily unfastened. He turned around to see Row unlocking her back door, and running down the steps. Barefooted and in a bathrobe, she jumped into his arms and gave him the best kiss he had ever gotten in his life. Brendon put his arms around her waist and kissed back even harder.

When they finally broke apart for air, no longer was Row's face looking like she was the most miserable person on earth, but was alight with glee beyond belief. Brendon smiled and figured it probably mirrored his own. Row widened her eyes and jumped out of his arms. "Oh my gosh, you really are soaked! And you smell like coffee…? Wait, it that coffee stains on your shirt and in your _hair?"_

Brendon laughed and said, "Can we please go inside? I'll explain everything."

Row eyed him with nervousness. "Will you stay the night?" She said this softly, like she was afraid of the answer.

Brendon kissed her once more. Once he pulled away he whispered in her ear, "Of course."

"You'll be there what I wake up in the morning?"

"I'll be there."

**Alright! PLEASE review and tell me what you guys think. I might continue this on similar lines, but later. Anyway, PLEASE REVIEW. ADVICE CRITICISM ARE ALL VERY WELCOME!**


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